POSCO Group will establish POSCO HY Clean Metal with China's Huayou Cobalt and invest 120 billion won to begin recycling key cathode materials such as nickel and lithium.

POSCO Group broke ground on a secondary battery recycling plant in the Yulchon Industrial Complex in South Jeolla Province on the 30th.

The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by approximately 50 people, including Jeong Chang-hwa, head of POSCO’s New Growth Division, Song Sang-rak, head of the Gwangyang Bay Free Economic Zone Authority, Lee Geon-seop, head of the Jeollanam-do Job and Economy Headquarters, Park Hyeon-sik, deputy mayor of Yeosu, Kim Gyeong-ho, deputy mayor of Gwangyang, Jeon Chang-gon, chairman of the Yeosu City Council, Jin Su-hwa, chairman of the Gwangyang City Council, Heo Yong-soo, president of GS Energy, Jang Seung-se, executive director of LG Energy Solution, Min Gyeong-jun, president of POSCO Chemical, and Ji Woo-hwang, CEO of POSCO HY Clean Metal.

In his commemorative speech, Jeong Chang-hwa, head of POSCO’s New Growth Division, said, “POSCO HY Clean Metal, a joint venture between POSCO and China’s Huayou Cobalt, is an eco-friendly secondary battery recycling business that extracts and sells nickel and lithium, essential raw materials for secondary battery materials, from spent batteries. This will become the future growth engine for POSCO Group.” He added, “We will solidify our position as a global secondary battery material supplier through continued investment and technological development.”

POSCO HY Clean Metal isThe Gonghan plant will be built on a 60,000-square-meter site in the Yulchon Industrial Complex in South Jeolla Province with an investment of 120 billion won. It is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2022. It will extract nickel, lithium, cobalt, and other metals from 12,000 tons of black powder annually.

The eco-friendly recycling market, which extracts secondary battery materials from scrap waste batteries, is expected to reach KRW 28 trillion by 2040, driven by the growth of electric vehicles. POSCO Group is also planning additional expansion depending on future market conditions.

In March of this year, POSCO established PLSC, a corporation in Poland, to process scrap from used batteries at European secondary battery plants into black powder. In May of this year, it established POSCO HY Clean Metal, a 65:35 joint venture with China's Huayou Cobalt, which possesses world-class technology in mineral refining and refining, to be responsible for the process of extracting nickel, lithium, etc. from black powder.

Meanwhile, POSCO Group, which possesses competitiveness in the secondary battery material value chain from the supply of lithium, nickel, and graphite, which are key raw materials for secondary battery materials, to the production of cathode and anode materials, plans to achieve annual sales of 23 trillion won in the secondary battery material sector by establishing a production system for 400,000 tons of cathode materials and 260,000 tons of anode materials by 2030 by independently supplying 220,000 tons of lithium and 100,000 tons of nickel.